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Venice Lagoon

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A new world with 4 custom careers encompassing three of the many islands from the Venice Lagoon.

Venice: An upper middle class neighborhood of canal houses and shopping
Burano: A middle class neighborhood of colorful homes, painted by fishermen to make them easier to find in the fog.
Sant’Erasmo: An agricultural island, dedicated to growing the food that Venice eats.

Features:
Fish from your backyard in the canal.
Listen to the calming effect of the waves and seagulls
Neighbors are nearby and you can hear them talking outside
The real Venice has limited roads and cars, but Sim Venice allows cars everywhere
Ghosts included in downloadable Sim Martha Brewster’s inventory (see Comments post 5 for more information)
Many trails for further fishing or collecting enjoyment
Live in a crowded city, or semi-isolated farm
Custom jobs to match your new home. (see Comments posts 1-4 for more information)

WA required
Patch 2.3.33 or later

Map Size: Large
Spawners: All base game spawners for plants, gems, and bugs are included
Routing: All areas are routable except for certain places near the ruins, Criminal Rabbithole and Military Rabbithole.
Layers: 12 layers were used.
Terrain paint: No block exceeds the 8 color limit recommendation set on terrain paint usage.

Lot Stats:
Total:
Residential: 67
Commercial: 26

Venice:
Residential: 26
20x30 14
30x40 1
30x30 5
20x40 6
Empty: 5
Commercial: 22
Empty: 15x20 5
Rabbitholes: All included, except Diner (it doesn’t fit the theme)
Other: Gym, Library, Museum, Café Florian (food register), 4 Parks, Public Swimming Pool

Burano:
Residential: 21
(0 empty lots)
20x20 21
Commercial: 3
Business and Journalism Rabbithole, Park, Store (contains registers for General Store and Food)

Sant’Erasmo:
Residential: 20
All empty
60x60 5
30x30 3
30x40 3
20x30 6
20x40 1
40x40 2
Commercial: 1 Park

Custom Careers:
(See comments, first 4 posts for detailed information)
Gondolier
Lacemaker
Lagoon Fisherman
Glassblower







Special Offer for New Residents of Venice Lagoon:
Is the property you want too expensive? Are you a displaced Sim from Sunset Valley or Riverview? Then take advantage of this special, one-time offer of free real estate! Just go onto your computer, press “Ctrl+C”, type “testingcheatsenabled true” and then type “freerealestate true”. You will now be able to move your family into the home of your dreams! And if you act quickly, you will also be given access to free cash! Just type “motherlode” to receive your move-in bonus from the Venetian Chamber of Commerce. (The above commands are testing cheats from EA. They are not mods. Because placing houses on the same lot with shells increases the value of the lot beyond the value of the livable home, go ahead and "cheat" a little to get into a house.)

Known Issues:
Quote:
1. Yes, this is a large world and not everyone will be able to play it. If you are having problems, delete some of the houses. Using a small population also helps performance.
2. Having the houses so close to each other eats up memory as well. You can change your graphics settings to render fewer objects (specifically “Draw Distance” and “High Detail Lots” or delete the houses around the one you have selected to play.
3. CAW currently only allows valleys to be “clean” cut on the x or y axis. Anything diagonal results in a jagged cut. Quite inconvenient, especially for creating canals that need steep edges as opposed to flat beaches.
4. I had problems with memory after returning from WA worlds. However, I also have the same problem playing Sunset Valley, so I’m not sure if Venice Lagoon is to blame or not. Either way, use “Save As” before going on vacation and during vacation so you can go back if you also have problems.
5. I will not create a non-WA version of this world.
6. As CAW matures I may be tempted to revisit this world and redo it. So if you are playing and decide you don’t like something or can’t play, leave a review and let me know why and perhaps any suggestions for making it better.
7. The tower that belongs to San Marco Square is not included because it is not possible at this time to create world objects for CAW. Building it as a lot doesn’t work either because it needs to be a tall (10 story) narrow building and the cheat for building that tall looks horrible on narrow buildings.
8. The canal walls used in France look great, but they only come in one size: too long. Because World Objects can’t be modified, I was unable to shrink it and therefore, unable to use it. This is something I hope can be fixed in the future.


Q&A

Quote:
I can’t extract the files.
If you get an error with one of the files while extracting, download it a second time. Sometimes there are network issues that can corrupt a file during the download process. You only need to re-download the rar you got the error on.

How do I install a multi-part rar file?
Begin the un-rar process with the first rar in the set. You will be prompted for the location of the next rar. Enter the location. It will do this for each of the files in the set, even if they are in the same location.

What program do I use to extract a rar?
There are several free programs out there that will handle rar files.

Looking for more realism?
Have your Sims ride bikes or mopeds. To get the moped, press “Ctrl + C” and type “buydebug”. Go into buy mode and you will see a new category with a question mark “?”. The moped is in there.

Why are there roads? I thought Venice didn't allow cars.
I tried removing the roads in Venice and Burano, but I ran into two problems:
1. The map is too big and everyone ended up being late for work or school.
2. The game tried to route school children in the most indirect route possible and they didn’t get to the school rabbithole until noon.
3. I found out recently that Venice does indeed have a handful of roads and cars. Apparently they leave that little fact out of the TV travel shows.

How do I fish from the Canal?
Sometimes when you click the canal and tell your Sim to fish, she will run to the car, drive to the other side of the canal and fish from there. This has to do with how the game decides routing, and makes no sense to me since the location the Sim was originally in is closer to the fish.
The best way to get around this is to move your sim to the side of the canal and then click on the jumping fish closest to her side of the canal and then tell her to fish.

Why are there no beaches in Burano Island?
The island has been covered in cobblestones for centuries, with greenery only showing up in certain parks and potted plants. Therefore, no dirt or sand beaches.

Why are there canals in the countryside?
Because not all canals are paved (look up the Erie Canal for a good example). In fact, paving a river makes the water go faster and increases erosion downstream so it's actually better in some circumstances to dredge the river to make it navigatable (essentially carve a canal.) Also, to fit the World Story (see below), certain parts of Venice are still waiting to be reclaimed after being under water for so long.

My Sim is going to the wrong Business and Journalism Rabbithole.
If you apply for a job through the newspaper or computer it will pick the nearest Rabbithole. If you wanted to go to the other B&J, click on the Rabbithole you want and select “Transfer Job”. You will loose none of your progress or coworker stats.

Does this work with mods?
I am running Nraas Supercomputer, Careers and Story Progression with no problems. I have not tried it with Awesomemod, but there is no reason it wouldn’t work. However, you should make sure you have the latest versions of any mods you are running.

Does this work with Hels?
Yes.

Do I need to install CAW before installing Venice Lagoon?
No, you do not.

Do I need WA installed to use Venice Lagoon?
Yes.

Do I need to install the custom content?
Yes and no.
There are several custom rabbitholes being used, and because of that they won’t work without a Rabbithole object. I have used Jynx’s Rabbithole rugs, but you could easily substitute Melissamel’s objects or even delete the custom rabbitholes and place the basegame objects. If you use a replacement you will have to go into “Edit Game” and edit the lot. The basegame rabbitholes will probably not fit on the same lots as the custom rabbitholes, however there are several 60x60 lots you could use instead.
The Spanish Balcony from Nanism and Glass Door from Lemoncandy are decorative, but if you don’t download them, nothing bad will happen. Of course, the houses won’t look as nice, but that’s up to you. I mean, if you want ugly windows and doors, go ahead and skip these downloads.

The Myth of Venice Lagoon:

Quote:
Once upon a time there was a lagoon in the Simiterranean Sea. The islands in this lagoon had been settled by desperate villagers fleeing the warlike era in which they had been born. The city they built eventually turned into a grand nation of shipbuilders and traders who ruled over the neighboring lands with an iron fist and a lenient democracy. However, with the passage of time the great nation fell into ruin and, being nothing more than a marshland overloaded with heavy cement and buildings, it slowly sank beneath the waves to be forgotten, falling from the pages of history into the realm of mythology.

Move forward many decades, and we are introduced to a rather unique family from the ordinary town of Sunset Valley. The Emperor of Evil, Leofric, his brother, Leofwine, his sister-in-law Godiva and nephew Wulfric. Leofric was quite insane, childish, and emotional. Given to whims of fancy he would often add on to his house in odd and rather architecturally demanding ways. Leofwine, who was also the Leader of the Free World was constantly worrying over his little brother.

One day Leofric awoke in a panic. Running to his basement his worst nightmare had come to pass: it was flooded. There was water everywhere.

Leofwine and Godiva tried to convince him that it was not his basement that was flooded, but the swimming pool he had built next to the house. A large window allowed one to view the pool from the basement. Leofric, however, would not be consoled.

Calling a press conference he explained his latest plan. The plan of all plans to dry out his flooded basement by ridding the world of all its water! Holding a teddy bear and wearing pale blue swimming shorts with yellow duckies on them he proceeded to rant and rave about the glories of the supreme world he would create when the danger of flooded basements was gone.

Wulfric infiltrated the “Outstanding Citizens Warehouse” and found the plans for the convoluted and badly constructed invention that was going to be used to rid the world of its water. Godiva and Leofwine poured over the plans, along with several scientists from the Science Lab. Eventually, they realized how to stop Leofric’s evil plan.

But they were too late. Looking up into the sky they saw a red laser being aimed from a satellite overhead into the ocean. All the water began to disappear. Quickly, the scientists enacted their plan and the laser beam was cut off. But not before most of the worlds water was locked up in the polar ice caps.

In the aftermath of this near disaster many land masses that had once been hidden under water were now revealed. Including Venice Lagoon.

Badly damaged by years underwater, it was no longer relegated to the world of myth, but was now returned to reality. Construction was begun almost immediately on restoring it to its former glory, but there is still a lot of work to do. Large blocks of concrete are missing from the canals resulting in uneven walls that are slowly being repaired. The outlying islands are in the worst shape as oddly shaped coastlines and flooded farmland echo badly the grandeur that was once one of the most powerful nations in the world.

And what of Leofric and his family? They moved to Venice and are now comfortably ensconced in a house without a swimming pool. Leofric’s medication has been quadrupled and Wulfric keeps a close eye on his Uncle, making sure his flights of fancy, remain a little less fanciful as they were in the past.


Custom content:
1. Rabbithole Rugs by Jynx :
http://www.modthesims.info/d/435107
Download and extract the Hospital, Business, School and Military signs.
2. Spanish Balconies - nanism
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=385948
3. Door with Glass by lemoncandy
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=373833

Thanks:
I'd like to thank all the people in the Creator Feedback Forum and the CAW forum who helped me improve this new world. I'd also like to thank Twallan for answering my questions on his forum, and for making such a great Careers mod.
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